WEBVTT - Listener Mail: Breathe in Union 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:10.520 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.040 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. Listener mail. 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:20.159 This is Robert Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:22.239 it's Monday, the day of each week that we read 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:25.919 back messages from the Stuff to Blow your Mind mail bag. 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:28.200 If you are a listener to the show and you've 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:30.560 never gotten in touch before, why not give it a try. 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.400 You can email us at contact at stuff to Blow 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:37.480 your Mind dot com. Any kind of message is fair game. 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:42.360 Of course, feedback on recent episodes is always appreciated. If 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.600 you have something interesting to add, if you have thoughts 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.080 about us something we've talked about recently, or if you 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:51.320 have corrections or updates or anything like that, all fair game. 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.440 Send it to contact at stuff to Blow your Mind 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:56.200 dot com. But also if you just want to share 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.600 something random that you thought we'd be interested in, or 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:02.400 just send a friendly message, it's all welcome. Rob. I 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.240 think we should start off with some responses to our 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:10.520 series on bathing and beliefs about the supposed healing powers 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:14.600 of immersion in water and various warm mineral springs and 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:16.399 things like that. Rob, do you do you want to 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:24.959 start us off reading this message from Fun Sure Fun 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:27.959 Rides High Folks really enjoyed the episode on the cultures 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.600 around bathing, and I'm looking forward to the rest of 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.919 the series. I thought it would be interesting that fatigue 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.120 was mentioned as something the ancient Romans believe could be 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:39.920 helped by bathing, as I deal with chronic fatigue and 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:43.039 always find starting my day with a hot shower boosts 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.120 my energy. I think this is by virtue of relaxing 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:48.320 my muscles and putting me in a good mood and 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.360 ties in with the idea of the full body experience 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:55.440 being an important aspect of this episode's topic. Well, yeah, 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:58.120 on that note, I don't I don't have to contend 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:02.440 with chronic fatigue, but I do find that a nice 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:07.440 hot shower is definitely a boost, regardless of what part 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:09.720 of the day I happen to take the shower in, Like, 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.239 sometimes I'll take it first thing in the morning, sometimes later, 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:15.560 sometimes you know, I'll take two, Sometimes I'll take one 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:17.120 of the gym, one of the house. That sort of 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:21.240 thing always like realigns the neurons in my experience. I 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.960 was going to say exactly the same thing even without 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.760 chronic fatigue. I find it is a hot shower is 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:28.760 kind of a crucial part of my wake up routine. 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:31.079 If I have to skip it, in a way, I 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:33.600 kind of feel like I haven't woken up yet long 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:37.560 end of the day. Yeah, they continue here relating to 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.880 cold water. My strongest experience would be taking part in 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:44.440 the Christmas Swim, going into the sea on Christmas morning 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.240 with a few hundred others. There is always an intensely 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:51.720 joyful social atmosphere and much talk of kickstarting the immune system. 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:55.280 I suspect that therapeutic aspect here is the carthosis of 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.440 collectively doing something that is a bit absurd, and of 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:02.560 course getting cozy afterwards is very satisfying. Yeah. As we 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:05.400 discussed in the episodes, While it seems there are some 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:10.399 isolated cases like chronic lead poisoning where bathing probably does 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:14.959 have a direct mechanism for healing, in most cases perceived 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.440 health benefits from bathing are more likely psychological, based in 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.919 either the placebo effect or in just you know, relaxation 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.359 and positive effects on mood. Though that's not to discount 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.799 these effects, because psychological benefits can be surprisingly powerful even 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:32.480 to how you feel in the body. Yeah, the cold tub. 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:35.440 The cold dip is of course a part of different 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:41.240 different sauna and spa cultures. I know there's a There's 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:43.760 Grean sauna that I have gone to in the past 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:46.680 here in the Atlanta area, and they have they have 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:49.320 a cold tub amid their hot tubs, and I see 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:51.760 I would see people do the full immersion in the 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:55.160 cold tub, and it's it's just too cold for me. 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:57.400 I think I got down up to my neck in 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.680 at once for maybe half a second, but that's the 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.640 most I could do, too shocking from my system. And 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.840 of course you see various like training videos of athletes 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:09.360 doing the not only cold bath, but like an ice 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:14.000 bath as part of their I guess like post workout regime. 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.320 But yeah, I haven't researched that at all to to 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:19.640 know like if that's something it's helpful with like sore 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:23.839 muscles and so forth. But if nothing else, it definitely 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:27.080 looks like they're getting a shock to the system. Okay, 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.640 more from the message. This episode also got me thinking 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:33.279 about scenes of bathing in Irish folklore stories I've read recently, 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:38.200 namely Lady Gregory's translations from the early nineteen hundreds. There 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:42.000 are regular occurrences of heroes being healed miraculously in baths 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:46.599 with healing herbs. Could this be considered tea and often 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:51.880 by bathing and broth? Bath and broth. I assume that 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:55.480 means like a meat broth. Yeah, I'm imagining the feeling now. 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:57.800 It's a little bit of gelatin clinging to your skin 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.080 all over your body. Well, I mean it's off. And 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.880 I've often seen it recommended that if you have itchy skin, 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.240 you might put some oats in the bath with you. 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:10.560 So there's a there's a thin line between culinary preparation 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.960 and just a good bath, I guess anyway, the message continues. 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.560 Immediate access to fresh bathing water also seemed important in 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.640 these stories for greeting guests, and a great moment is 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:25.520 when Kohland arrives somewhere in his godly fury the warp spasm. 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:29.320 To avoid Kholand's wrath, his host put out three baths 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:32.599 of cold water to literally quench his anger. When he 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:36.400 gets into the first bath, all the water is immediately evaporated, 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.440 the second boils over, and finally in the third bath 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.440 he can cool down and relax. Oh man, I don't 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.719 I don't remember encountering this in our past look at 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.520 coholand but I love this. This is almost like a 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:52.320 Loony Tunes level trying to cool down the hot anger 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.320 of Koholand. Oh, it's also like a warp spasm version 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:57.599 of the Three Bears. Like the first two beds aren't 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:02.880 comfortable enough, the last one final works all right, and 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:05.800 finally they turned a weird house on. Weird House sent 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:07.640 him a note. Over the last few days, I had 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.040 a bunch of older episodes on for some background listening, 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:13.640 and during one film about giant fighting robots, a character 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.160 used some kind of medical spray. I think it was 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:18.400 in Robot Shocks, but it may have been a different 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.640 giant robot picture. Anyway, you were wondering where you had 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:24.039 seen this medical spray before, thinking perhaps it was in 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.039 a video game. I was pretty sure it was in 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.599 a Metal Gear Solid game, and indeed, after checking the wiki, 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:34.920 the healing spray item appeared in MGSV but also quote 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:37.800 resembles the first date spray from the Resident Evil series. 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:40.600 Now at the end of this email, all I can 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:44.400 think of is magical healing bath in a can. Thanks 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:47.400 again for the great episodes, all the best. Well, thank 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:50.720 you for jan I was definitely thinking of the healing 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.960 spray from Resident Evil when I put this together. I 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:57.040 think I specifically would have been thinking about Resident Evil 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.760 for I don't know, like a zombie. I say, chunk 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:02.799 out of your neck, and the way you get better 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:08.359 is you take an aerosol can and spray yourself. There's 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:12.400 some goodness. There's some other game that I played or 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:16.000 replayed recently that in retrospect also had this. Maybe it 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:20.280 was maybe it was X Calm. I have this vague 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:23.000 memory of some sort of floating robot coming over and 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:25.120 like hosing down a character with some sort of a 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:27.120 spray to heal them up. I feel like it would 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:29.040 make more sense if what you were being sprayed with 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:32.520 was like nanobots like the ones from Jason X that 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.520 going in repair all your tissue. I don't know exactly 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:40.160 how just the regular spray works. It's a disinfectant, I suppose. Yeah. 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:42.880 All right, onto the next message about the washing of 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:46.000 the waters. This is from Sean, and this one calls 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:48.840 back to something we addressed in one of the episodes 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.520 where at one of the warm springs in Ireland where 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.880 there was allegedly a healing property, there was a source 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.760 rob you were talking about that said people would like 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.720 gather up a worm that lived in the spring, and 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.200 the worm would be like in a cloth, and then 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.040 they would rub that cloth on their eyes. And then 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:11.880 the source also said people didn't leave the cloth hanging 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:15.360 on a shrub nearby because there wasn't a saint associated 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.240 with the spring. And we were mighty confused by this. 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:21.160 We were like, wait, is this saying that they didn't 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:23.480 leave a cloth because like a saint wasn't there to 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.320 make them be altruistic or something. But Sean helps clear 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:35.440 this up. High in relation to washing of the water's 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:39.440 Part two, specifically folklore remedies from Ireland, it is tradition 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.840 to leave items, typically cloth, hanging from the local bushes 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:47.600 or trees at holy wells with the belief that it 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.240 will be blessed by the saint of those waters and 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:53.680 imbued with some property. The same can be seen of 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.920 trinkets left on top of the site. This can be 0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:01.320 seen to this day amongst the countless wells across our landscape. 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.160 Many also have some ritual in how they are approached 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:08.559 or utilized. How much of these traditions stem from pagan 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:13.080 versus strictly Christian practice. I cannot say. I suspect it 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:17.240 is a syncretism, meaning a blending of different religious traditions, 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:21.320 as there are pagan myths involving wells as sources of healing. 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.320 This syncretism of older cultural practices can be seen amongst 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:29.800 our art and stories in insular Christianity. A wider example 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.360 can be seen of this on Saint Bridget's Day, where 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:36.480 folks leave cloth outside the house to be blessed by her. 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.640 I guess, meaning Saint Bridget. She is one of our 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:45.160 three national saints, alongside comb Seal. I think that might 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:49.120 also be known as Columba and Patrick, and typically is 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.720 associated with protection and healing. I'm not so sure what 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.960 the whole idea is regarding application of a worm in 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:59.280 a soaked cloth onto the eye. A weak argument can 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.760 be made general health improvements could be made from cleaning 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:06.280 wounds with fresh water sources filtered by the rocks under 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:09.800 the ground, or potentially the composition of the water having 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:14.760 some effect, but I'd tend towards placebos. One example in 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:16.960 which I cannot speak to the veracity of the claim 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:23.319 involves I'll try to say this to buyer nanialt i e. 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:28.440 The well at Glenn nanialt It's curative properties are said 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:32.400 to stop madness again. It appears once or twice in 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.480 general myths and local folklore. The unfaified claim relates to 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:40.160 low levels of lithium having been identified in the water source, 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:46.360 which could induce antidepressive or antipsychosis effects over time. We'll 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:48.720 rob this connects to a note from our last episode 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:53.280 on the beliefs about healing waters, specifically about so called 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:58.439 lithium springs or lithium or lithia waters. I think you 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:03.720 may confirm this. Our conclusions were that actual pharmacological effects 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:08.760 from lithium springs would be really held back by dosage 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.000 regulation issues. So it seemed fairly doubtful to us that 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:17.520 people were really getting direct lithium treatment benefits from these 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:20.640 supposed waters because often, like the lithium level was so 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.440 low that it was like not anywhere close to what 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:27.320 you would take as an actual medical dose, but even 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.040 if it were higher, it would be unregulated in a 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:34.240 way that might be dangerous. Yeah, exactly, Like during the 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.240 time period that lithium water was initially really hot, Like 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:41.760 that was the that was the problem, as people would 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:43.599 then looked at the water to analyze the water and 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:47.800 they said, whoa, there's actually little to no lithium in 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:52.599 this water, so you're nowhere near at therapeutic dose. And 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:55.520 I also want to again thanks to Sean, because this 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.080 email came in before we did that episode, and so 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:02.400 this email helped inform our treatment of the Lithia Waters 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:06.440 segment of those episodes. Ah oh. And then finally Sean 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:11.040 includes a Gaelic greeting saying regards and a happy Saint 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:14.439 Patrick's Day to you. Sean. Well, thank you very much 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.480 for the message. All right, we also heard from the 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.720 Nation of Gems. I'm not sure which gym this says, 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:21.880 if this is a past gem or a new gym, 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.320 but this is not a gym from New Jersey, right right. 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:32.880 This jem says, Hey, guys, I'm enjoying the Washing of 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:35.679 the Water series. Rob is a fellow swimmer. Do you 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:39.440 find the quiet and peacefulness of the water muffling the 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:43.000 outside world to allow your mind to enter a contemplative 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:46.400 contemplative state? I enjoy swimming for the physical exercise, but 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.480 part of me enjoys the time I have to reflect 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:50.920 and muse on what is going on in my day 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:53.840 to day life. Thanks Jim. Well, that's a that's a 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:56.400 great question. I may have touch based on this a 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:58.880 little bit in the past, but I know when I'm swimming, 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:03.439 I'm generally doing one of two things. Either I'm structuring 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:05.520 my thoughts so as to keep track of what lane 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:08.559 I'm on, Like on this lane, I'm only going to 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.079 think about alien and then the second lap, I'm only 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:13.400 going to think about aliens and then Alien three, etc. 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.520 That seems to work. Or I'll do like a top 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:20.120 five of something just to do things in chunks of five. 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.840 But other times I will really sort of think structurally 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:27.640 about about something I'm I'm putting together, like for the 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:31.080 podcast or whatever, or some kind of like personal project 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:36.360 or something, and I find that really rewarding. But yeah, so, yeah, 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.480 there is something about the water muffling and so forth. 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:42.719 There's still a lot to distract one if you let 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.839 it distract you, in my experience, in like a YMCA pool, 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:48.880 because you can still you can still let these you know, 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:53.079 negative outside thoughts in you can let yourself get discouraged 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:57.520 or frustrated with people and situations around you, even in 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:01.120 the immediate vicinity so it's I don't know. I think 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.400 about the experience of being like a lap swimmer a lot, 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.360 like it's it's a bunch of people literally in their 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.800 own lane, doing their own thing, and uh, and sometimes 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:13.400 I worry that it's not, you know, it's not social enough, 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:16.640 Like it's not there should be some sort of like 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:20.000 built in way that we're communicating with each other instead 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.520 of just doing our own things and and maybe eyeing 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.760 each other less communally, you know. But yeah, I guess 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:27.880 the water muffling is part of it. Like you're you know, 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:32.240 you're literally submerging yourself into this, uh, this altered state 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.760 of sensory perception. I think this is why people have 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:38.320 a lot of thoughts in the shower. Also, it is 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:41.880 not just that they are for the moment away from 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.200 all their other tasks and devices and media sources and stuff, 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:48.120 so they're alone with their own thoughts, but it's also 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:50.240 the I think the noise of the shower, like the 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:53.200 shower water coming down creates a white noise environment that 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.680 helps you sort of like let your thoughts wander. I 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:01.280 find that snorkeling can be even more relaxing. Snortling can 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:03.720 also be like for me anyway, it can be kind 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.920 of like high engagement, especially if I'm snorkeling in a 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:08.960 place that I haven't been to before. The water is 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.880 really cold. But if I'm like comfortable in a snortling 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:15.680 environment and there's some interesting stuff to look at, that's 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.160 really nice in my experience because you get that like 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:20.160 part of it is not only the muffling of the water, 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:24.040 but also the rhythmic breathing. Your own sound of your 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:28.040 own breath through the snorkel is really calming in a 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:41.200 way that you know, rhythmic breathing for lap swimming isn't okay. 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:42.880 So I think we need to move on to some 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:45.640 messages in response to our series on whales and Rob, 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:48.240 You've got to read this first one from Evan because 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:51.920 I think you are the Star Wars Extended Universe guy 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:55.760 between us, and this one definitely concerns the outskirts of 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:59.320 the cannon. Okay, all right, Evan Wright. Then it says, Hi, 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.560 Rob and Joe love the show. Me and my wife 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:04.520 have been listening for a long time. Keep up the 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:08.400 amazing work related to the idea of whale barnacle armor. 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:12.280 I was wondering if anyone else mentioned that Darth Bain, 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:15.320 who lived about a thousand years before the films, at 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:19.680 one point chose to allow himself to be covered with orbelisks, 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:24.000 an insect or crustacean like creature. Joe, are you familiar 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.760 with Darth Bain? Not at all? I assumed you would be. Well, 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:31.600 it's not a story the Jedi would tell you anyway, 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:36.600 Heaven continues. Their tough shells provided him with lightsaber and 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:40.240 blaster proof armor, allowing him to take a purely offensive 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.040 fighting style, as well as pain and a chemical that 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.920 boosted his connection to the dark side, and they mentioned 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:50.160 his terrifying appearance. It was not without downsides. They shortened 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.280 his life and nearly killed him. While he needed the 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:55.840 insects remove, he also needed to wear special armor to 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.640 keep them from spreading and covering his face, hands, etc. 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.560 Looking like a monster also limited his ability to appear 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:06.119 in public and maintain his budding empire. The details can 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.960 be found in the Great Bain Trilogy books by Drew Carpettien, 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:13.560 which are wonderfully read with exceptional voice acting and sound 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.359 effects in the official audio books as well. Me and 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:19.040 my wife listen to it on Libby We are a 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:22.040 Libby household as well. Great way to get your digital 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.080 and audio library books. You could ask about it at 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:28.879 your local library, as your card number will be needed. 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.159 I attached a few images for fun. Okay, one's an 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:36.320 illustration and one is a costume at a con or something. 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:40.439 The illustration we got like a major evil looking bald 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.879 boy who has got some kind of pyramid floating in 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.080 his hand and a red lightsaber. And yes he does 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:50.560 appear to be encrusted with some kind of gunk, almost 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.479 almost barnacle like in fact. Yeah, this is an interesting 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:56.560 approach to buio armor, which of course brings to mind 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:00.840 something from Children of Doone. I don't want to spoil 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.280 anything for anyone out there who hasn't gone that far 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:07.360 in the Dune series. But as for Darth Baine himself, 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:09.919 I haven't. I haven't read any of these books, but 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:15.080 I have run across people saying they're good before, so yeah, 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:17.080 at some point I might need to check them out. 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.719 I haven't really explored that much from this time period 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:25.119 of Star Wars lore. Well, thank you, Evan. Okay, we 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:33.159 got a message from colmb Colms says, hey guys, just 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.520 a quick one liner. Check out this story below good 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:40.520 timing with the gray whale episodes, and so I put 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.200 together some notes here from Colm's length. This is an 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:48.240 article in The Guardian by Phoebe weston headline extraordinary sighting 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:54.400 of Orca with baby pilot whale Astound's scientists. Now, yeah, 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:57.199 a lot of what we discussed in that series was 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:01.479 about orca's being the main natural pred ors of gray whales, 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:04.359 and so there would be this migratory journey where the 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:07.840 gray whale mothers and their calves would be going back 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:12.200 up north along the western coast of North America, with 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:15.280 the newborn calves having to be escorted by the mothers 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:19.159 because the new worn calves are vulnerable to predation by orcas. 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:24.080 But in this case it's orca parenting behavior. So an 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:28.120 adult orca appeared to be sort of guiding and protecting 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.720 this little whale from a different species, a pilot whale. 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:36.360 And this happened near Snifflesness, a peninsula on the western 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.680 side of Iceland, where I have actually been, and that's 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:42.480 a really cool place, awesome landscape. I don't know if 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:44.720 it's normally like this, but when I was there, the 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.480 wind quite literally almost knocked me off my feet. It 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.560 was the windiest place I've ever been. But anyway, so 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.840 I found that the citation of the scientific paper documenting 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:58.560 this observation in the orcas, This was by Marie Teresa 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:04.360 Marucha at All published in the Canadian Journal of Zoology, 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:08.160 called first account of apparent aloparental care of a long 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:12.040 finned pilot whale calf by a female killer whale, and 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.320 this was just this year twenty twenty three. To read 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:18.159 from Phoebe Weston's article in The Guardian, quote, the ship's 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.040 crew initially thought it was a very small killer whale 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:24.879 calf swimming alongside the orca, but photos later confirmed what 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:30.280 Muchoks suspected that the female, called Sidis, appeared to be 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:34.640 looking after a newborn long finned pilot whale and then 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:36.879 a different quote from the article, Although this is the 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:41.000 first time this behavior called interspecific alo parenting, has been 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:44.879 observed in orcas, it has been seen in other cetacean species. 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:50.000 Short beaked common dolphins, common bottle noses, Indian Ocean humpbacks 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:53.760 and Indo Pacific humpbacks have all been observed looking after 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:57.160 the young of other species. Well, that is very interesting 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:00.840 also definitely a different side to see after thinking about 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:05.199 the predatory capacity of the Orcas almost exclusively for several 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:10.520 episodes there. It's very interesting and not to anthropomorphize too much, 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:13.800 but I will say heartwarming. Yeah, I think if nothing else, 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:17.960 it does just remind us that orcas are complex creatures, 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:21.960 intelligent creatures with a lot going on, and that we 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:24.720 shouldn't be too quick to dismiss them as one thing 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:28.159 or another. Oh but hey, one more quick response to 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:30.800 the series we did on whales. We got a message 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:34.040 from Mike. Mike's message was featured in a previous Listener 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:36.840 Maile episode. This was the one about Mike had had 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:40.320 an experience where he was out surfing and he found 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:44.440 himself directly in the path of it was a baleen whale. 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:46.119 I think it was a humpback I'm sorry if I 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:49.639 remember that. Yes, yeah, a humpback whale trying to feed, 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.879 doing like lunge feeding on schools of something maybe small 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:57.880 fish near the surface, and Mike ended up having a 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:01.760 profoundly stirring encounter with one of the whale's eyes as 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:04.280 it sort of gently pushed him out of the way. 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:07.480 So Mike got in contact to say thanks for reading 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:16.479 his whale story, and then he added something else just 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:19.960 to summarize. He said his work involves some connection to 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:24.119 generative AI, so he made some images. He attached, first 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:26.800 of all, an image based on a description of his 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:30.720 encounter with the Humpbacks, and of that image, Mike says, 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:33.600 it fails to capture the burning intellect of the whale, 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:38.719 but accurately captures the chaos and surreal surreality of the experience. 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:43.440 And it shows a kind of strange, sort of glyph 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:47.760 faced human underneath a whale that's breaching the surface, as 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:51.800 there are fish all throughout the sky, sort of exploding 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:54.119 from the water's surface. There. Yeah, these were neat to 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:57.719 scroll through. But then the second thing is so that 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:02.280 was his encounter. He also had He also generated a 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:06.000 bunch of images for movie posters for a film concept 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:08.439 that is not a real movie. It's one mic dreamed 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:13.240 up and that concept is scanner whales. That's that's very good. 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:16.560 M M. Yeah, there might be something too that The 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:20.119 scanner whale poster is of a very seventies look. I 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:22.320 really like them. And one of them shows what appears 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:24.359 to be like a whale with a sort of X 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:27.720 ray image where you're looking at I guess it's skeleton, 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:30.480 but it's not a whale skeleton. It looks like sort 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:33.760 of a combination of a whale skeleton with like a 0:23:33.840 --> 0:23:38.119 deflated basketball, or maybe like a card that's been in 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:40.560